Through A Camera Lens

Every day I have the kids do a few pages of homework in their Summer Bridging books. It helps keep both of them in a routine and from their minds turning into mush.The other day Grace had an interesting assignment. The instructions were to tell a story as seen through a camera’s lens. I personally thought this was a little deep for a kid who is only going to be going into 3rd grade. What Gracie produced was even deeper. In case you cannot read it, here is what it says.

My brother Jay has Aspergers. You may only catch the bad stuff but a camera can catch the good stuff. Like how he helps me with homework. At the park he pushes me on the swing. He makes me laugh. He helps pull pranks on my dad. See Jay has a good side. From, Gracie

I was moved by this story. Not just because she was saying nice things about her brother. No more than an hour after she wrote this the two were fighting like cats and dogs. No I was moved by how my daughter’s perspective has been altered because of autism.

You see she has already discovered something that many people years her elder have not figured out. She knows that photos turn a 3D world into a flat one dimensional image and that our world is anything but flat and one dimensional. She knows that photos are not as concrete as people think. They can be distorted or changed not only by different lenses but by how the film is developed. But she also knows that by adjusting the lens just a little bit and watching the world from a slightly different angle, you can see beauty where others may not.

I think today’s homework lesson was a good one for us all. Thank you Gracie.